Quality of two tomato cultivars grown under different agronomical conditios.

Abstract

Quality of two tomato cultivars (‘Dundee’ and ‘V1’) produced in greenhouses, under different agronomical conditions during a season, was studied. The main goal was to measure quality of tomato fruits produced under different environmental conditions, and to understand their influence on final quality. To achieve this objective several physical and chemical general quality parameters were evaluated and to study nutritional quality, antioxidants (lycopene, beta-carotene, vitamin C) and total sugars (fructose and glucose) were analyzed. Analyses of variance were performed considering the factors “Harvest time”, “Cultivar” and “Agronomical conditions” that correspond to the different conditions inside greenhouses. The MANOVA statistical analysis revealed that all the factors considered were significant as well as their interactions. The factor “Harvest time” was the most important to explain the differences. The ‘V1’ fruits produced in the metallic greenhouse without additional CO2 had higher and more homogeneous weight values and also higher skin firmness. The colour coordinate a* was generally lower for fruits grown in traditional greenhouse. ‘Dundee’ fruits reached the highest SST medium value of 6.37 ºBrix. Biosynthesis of lycopene and vitamin C was affected by agronomical conditions and also predetermined by cultivars. ‘Dundee’ cultivar seems to be more sensitive to agronomical conditions than the ‘V1’. Beta carotene content was mainly due to genetic factors. The ‘V1’ exhibited higher values of beta carotene for all the greenhouse conditions.